Ultizen Games Ltd., a game development and outsourcing company, announced today that it has secured $6 million USD in a Series B funding round led by Taiwan–based venture capital firm PAC–LINK, with participation from Japan–based VC firm Japan Asia Investment Co. (JAIC) and CyberAgent, a leading on–line advertising agency and media representative company. The Series B funding will be used to support company´s continued rapid growth through acquisitions. Ultizen´s North American offices are located in Los Angeles.
Ultizen closed a $1.5 million USD Series A round of financing from Shanghai and Boston–based Dragonvest Partners in late June of 2007, and grew from 70 to 350 employees within the company´s first year of operation.
With the largest talent base in China, reliable security to protect client intellectual property (IP), excellent quality control and an outstanding record of on–time delivery, Ultizen provides the highest quality game art development outsourcing services to North American, European and Japanese clients ranging from "top 20" gaming and media companies to small and mid–size studios.
Ultizen Games´ 350–person studio provides game development services including game design, porting, programming and art. A certified Microsoft XBOX Live Arcade game developer, the company plans to launch its first title on the XBOX platform in the fall of 2008.
"China has become the biggest game development and art outsourcing market in recent years and we believe the market will continue to grow exponentially in the near future. With the advanced technology and more than 350 talented developers, Ultizen has the potential to become the market leader in the industry," said PAC–LINK General Partner Allen Hsu. "In addition, the web–based casual game industry has shown tremendous growth. As an early mover in this segment, we believe that Ultizen will become a dominant player and, moreover, have great potential to expand from a developer into an influential publishing and operating company in this segment."
Founded in January 2005 by gaming industry veterans Lan Haiwen and Wu Jun, now Ultizen´s CEO and Vice President, respectively, the company has achieved rapid success, and has grown to be one of the top three independent game studios in China, both organically and through the acquisition of Beijing–based Mo–Star Limited, a well–established game content provider on China Mobile´s game portal platform. The company maintains studios in Shanghai and Beijing, China and opened an office in Los Angeles in the fall of 2007.
"Ultizen´s leadership team, Lan Haiwen and Wu Jun, combines a deep knowledge of the gaming industry and the Chinese game development market with a sophisticated understanding of the needs of game development and media companies around the globe," said Dragonvest Partners Co–Founder and Co–Managing General Partner Jesse Parker. "They have done an outstanding job of attracting and retaining the top talent needed to support rapid growth and address their clients skills and resource requirements while maintaining a high quality standard."
Ming Hsu, General Partner, PAC–LINK and Tetsuya Tsuda, CEO of Japan Asia Investment (China) Co., Ltd. will join Dragonvest Partners´ Jesse Parker; Ultizen Vice President Wu Jun; and board chairman and Ultizen CEO Lan Haiwen on the company´s Board of Directors.
"Ultizen´s track record of profitable growth is a validation of our capabilities and the top– and bottom–line business benefit our clients derive from partnering with us," said Lan Haiwen. "The addition of PAC–LINK, JAIC and Cyber Agent to our investment team provides us with the resources to aggressively expand our leadership position among China–based game development and outsourcing companies to address the huge market opportunity the thriving global gaming industry presents."
About Ultizen Games
Ultizen Games Ltd is a Shanghai–based game development outsourcer for North American, European and Japanese companies, and the creator of the U–Pal casual game platform for the Chinese market. The company was founded in 2005 by a group of industry experts from Ubi Soft China, Shanda and The 9. Ultizen Games´ 320–person studio provides game development services including game design, porting, programming and art. The company maintains studios in Shanghai and Beijing, China and opened an office in Los Angeles in the fall of 2007. For more information, please visit www.ultizen.com.
About CyberAgent
CyberAgent, Inc. (TSE: 4751) is a leading on–line advertising agency and media representative company. Established in 1998, and listed on the Tokyo Mothers Exchange in 2000, the CyberAgent group is committed to contributing to a new society through its work on the Internet, not only in its fields of advertising and media, but through finding promising new business and investing aggressively in developing new business.
About Dragonvest Partners
Dragonvest Partners is an early stage technology venture fund investing in talented Chinese entrepreneurs who have started new enterprises in Greater China. Based in Shanghai, PRC with a presence in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Dragonvest is dedicated to investing in early stage emerging Chinese technology companies. Dragonvest´s unique advantage is its bi–lingual, bi–cultural investment strategy which allows Chinese technology companies to grow and emerge as global technology enterprises.
DVP targets early stage companies including "Sea Turtle" ethnic Chinese returnees who have established emerging enterprises in China. Dragonvest is on the leading edge of assisting promising entrepreneurs in growing exciting companies dedicated to developing and marketing products both for the Chinese domestic market and the global market.
About JAIC
The JAIC Group is committed to serving as a bridge between financial and industrial capital as an independent venture capital firm and intends to contribute to the creation of a new industrial structure by fostering the development and growth of new business ventures and new industries. In the area of venture capital investments, our core area of operations, we will apply our sophisticated specialist knowledge and ample experience to invest in privately held companies with growth prospects, will foster and support investee companies to increase their corporate value, and will seek to maximize capital gains and fund performance that results from the IPOs of these companies and other exit strategies. JAIC´s North American offices are located in Palo Alto, California.
About PAC–LINK
Founded in 1998, PAC–LINK has established itself as a professional venture capital management firm. Up to now, PAC–LINK managed ten funds, with a total fund size growing from US$30M to US$430M. Ever since its establishment, PAC–LINK has invested and assisted over 160 portfolio companies to grow their business. The portfolio covers a wide range of industries, including auto, communication, semiconductor, optical electronics, and life sciences, mostly in Asia and North America.
